Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Bastian Fisser, Co-Founder of The Bitery: The Bitery has reinvented the cookie – as a product, as a brand, and as an experience. We bring ready-to-bake premium cookies to the restaurant, corporate catering, and retail industries. Freshly baked, crispy, and emotionally stimulating – our cookies combine quality with convenience, perfectly capturing the spirit of the times. Our products are extremely popular with end customers because they combine enjoyment with an experience. At the same time, they offer businesses a financially viable and differentiating offering. Whether in food retail (LEH) or food service – wherever freshness, emotional appeal, and sales potential are required, our cookies deliver real added value.
“Our cookie is not a snack on the side”
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Bastian Fisser: Yes, there are cookies. And then there's The Bitery. What didn't exist before we started: a premium brand with authentic recipes, inspiring storytelling, modern design, and uncompromising quality – ready-to-bake. Not frozen, but chilled. Not an industrial cookie, but a cookie that tastes like homemade – fresh from the oven, with an emotive aroma, a soft center, and a wow factor. Our cookie isn't a casual snack. It's a product with heart, craftsmanship, and attitude. That's exactly what was missing.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Bastian Fisser: The Bitery started out as a food blog—full of ideas, flavor, and dreams. We wanted to reimagine good food—with clarity, style, and a sense for what people truly love.
In 2023, we put everything on one card: the cookie. We restructured the entire company, reduced our portfolio, and focused entirely on one product. And we seemingly hit the mark – today we deliver millions of cookies per year, operate in six countries, and are constantly expanding. The cookie is our vehicle – but it's actually about much more: inspiring people, redefining enjoyment, and making genuine quality sexy again.
Conservative structures in food service
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Bastian Fisser: We're not a corporation, nor a streamlined structure. We're a young, passionate team that has carved out a place for itself in the market with creativity, instinct, and courage. Our biggest challenge: establishing an innovative, refrigerated product in the German food retail sector. Convincing purchasing managers, securing refrigerated shelves, keeping production scalable, and at the same time maintaining our ambition.
Then there's the food service sector, where conservative structures prevail. We had to initiate many things ourselves – today we're in talks with almost all the major restaurant players and are demonstrating how much potential lies in a seemingly simple product.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Bastian Fisser: In one year: The Bitery will be the cookie brand in Europe. Physically tangible, digitally present, and emotionally anchored. Our products are sold in schools, canteens, hotels, gas stations, restaurants—everywhere where people love cookies.
In five years: global presence. New product lines centered around Sweet Bakery. A brand that represents the new confectionery segment: uncompromising in quality, modern in design, cost-effective for partners, and extremely popular with customers. We don't want to simply play along—we want to change the game.
“Munich is not a hype place”
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Bastian Fisser: Munich isn't a hype-filled place. It's a location that values quality, has depth, and promotes genuine reliability. For our product—which isn't a gimmick but has real impact—Munich is ideal.
In addition, the scene has become much more open. People meet on equal terms. And we are happy that we, as Food startup be noticed here – not only because of our products, but because of the clarity and consistency with which we promote them.
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Bastian Fisser: We take a radical approach: We do everything related to the product and the brand ourselves. Development, storytelling, brand identity, recipes – all of this remains ours.
At the same time, we're pragmatic enough to collaborate with experienced partners in specific areas. We monitor, dictate, and execute—but we also trust. Our network is now strong—and this helps us grow rapidly without losing our soul.
